EMOTIONAL GENOCIDE: the hidden statistics of the children of GAZA
There is a famous cliché attributed to Hiram Warren Johnson (1866-1945) that says: “The first casualty of war is truth.”
Johnson obviously did not witness life in Gaza. If he did, he would have said: “The first casualty of war are children”. Not only that: “The forgotten casualty of war are children.”
While political warlords, Presidents, and Prime Ministers vie for power, millions of children, the weak, and the vulnerable are fighting for survival in a war that will leave scars few can foresee and nobody wants to predict.
For the more than 1.1 million children of Gaza (49% of the population), the emotional distress of dodging bombs and bullets has become a daily routine. What children in the West enact in play, children in Gaza endure as a hellish nightmare. Losing loved ones, fleeing through streets littered with debris and corpses, and waking up each morning uncertain of where food and water will come from has become a cruel reality that no one escapes. NO ONE. Especially the vulnerable, the weak, and the small.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has raised the alarm over the mental health crisis affecting nearly all 1.1 million children in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli ongoing war in the blockaded territory. Gaza’s children are grappling with nightmares, severe anxiety, and paralyzing fear caused by the relentless Israeli bombardments, the loss of family members, and the worsening humanitarian crisis.
- 96% of children in Gaza want to die and see death as imminent. 96% ! Only 4 out of every 100 children do not have suicidal thoughts or can still find purpose in life.
- 84% of children in Gaza live in constant fear and are traumatised in such a way that
- 79% suffer from nightmares, with the same percentage exhibiting bedwetting because of this. Fear should never be the living template for a child and yet more than 3 out of 4 Gazan children live in fear – by day and by night
- 59% of children in Gaza refuse to speak because of being traumatised.
- 73% of children in Gaza exhibit aggression as signs of deep traumatisation
- 100% – nearly ALL the children in Gaza – have eating disorders, are facing famine and live constantly with food insecurity. No child in Gaza knows where the next meal will come from.
- More than 17,492 children have now been killed in Gaza alone since the start of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. This is more than double the 8,630 children that were killed in all global conflicts during 2022. Apart from the 17,492 children that have been killed up to date (03/02/2025), a further
- 38,000 have been orphaned by either losing a mother, a father or both
- 9,000 Palestinian children had to amputate at least 1 limb in Gaza, often without painkillers or anaesthesia. Experts warn that the ongoing Israeli atrocities risk shaping a future defined by deep-rooted psychological scars.
- 640,000 children have lost their homes and schools
Oh, may God have mercy.
We all rejoiced at the release of the Israeli hostages. We witnessed how Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger and Gadi Moses were reunited with their families and their pictures paraded all the front covers of Western News media.
But no one reported the fears and anxiety of Sara, Bassem, Momen and May who suffer from war wounds, nightmares, anxiety and hunger.
Oh, may God have mercy. May His followers embrace the same compassion that Jesus exhibited at the grave of Lazarus. May His words haunt us as we remember how the children climbed on His lap, and He said these words:
(Matthew 18:5-6) And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
For more information on how to get involved and support children who suffer under the burden of war visit: https://dialogos.co.za/project-hope-lebanon/
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Other sources:
https://www.newarab.com/news/one-million-traumatised-gaza-children-need-mental-health-support